Search watoday:

Search in:

Kennett to Dixon: Lay off the flying kangaroo

Former Victorian premier Jeff Kennett has waded into the spate between Qantas and Tourism Australia, urging the peak tourism agency's chairman Geoff Dixon to step down and get off the national carrier's back, a report says.

Mr Kennett said Mr Dixon, who heads up Tourism Australia, has had his time at the helm of Qantas and "had his opportunity to bring off the privatisation, and that didn't work".

"Often people who have been in senior positions have to back away a bit once they hand over the reins," Mr Kennett told The Australian Financial Review during a tourism conference in Sydney.

He urged Mr Dixon to "allow those he has nurtured to exist and grow".

"It's a competitive world and it's a bit hard if you're trying to do a job and someone is, allegedly, trying to pull you apart."

Tourism Australia declared its full support for its chairman Mr Dixon on Wednesday after Qantas's shock decision to cut off its funding of the official tourism body.

Qantas severed its links to Tourism Australia after saying that Mr Dixon, who ran Qantas from 2001 to 2008, was in a position of "untenable potential conflict".

Qantas had wanted him to step down as chairman or disassociate himself from a rebel group pushing for change at the airline.